Poutine - the canadian snack

Clearing stock, here is another recipe thats easy fast and delicious. Only few ingredients. Apparently poutine is like a national dish in Canada. Here is what google yields of its origin:

Poutine, a Canadian dish made of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. It first appeared in 1950s rural Québec snack bars and was widely popularized across Canada and beyond in the 1990s. Poutine may be found everywhere from fine dining menus at top restaurants to fast-food chains.

Ingredients: 

-either potato to slice and make fried, or frozen fries

- curd  , replaced with cheese i have on hand.

- gravy i had from previous roast of chicken, thicken and add soy sauce some flour to thicken. this one could have been more diluted to reduce saltiness.

- variation  - added some slice of sausage and half of diced yellow onion. (loved the onion additional flavor).

Bake or Fry potato which ever way to cook it up. I used oven, just dump frozen fries inside preheating oven for 10-15 mins while i get busy on other things. Set 175 C for the fries 18min add sausage slilces . At 5 min left, drop in yellow onion into the oven to bake as well slightly. Gravy leftover just drop the teared chesse slice into gravy and nuke it in the microwave for some hot sauce and melted cheese goodiness. Drizzle on top of fries, sausage and onion mix and serve hot.

Sidenote: being asian, not a simple drip of gravy goes to waste. I nuked gravy together with one slice of white bread from my freezer. Tools to clean up gravy :)

                 

 

Mixed Chilli Oil - my recipe

Due to the problems at work, i need to start clearing my stocks and ingredients. Suddenly saw my bag of dried mala chilli. Here goes, chilli oil experiement or what i called now the chatGPT/Internet/IG cooking.

                            

Remove the top of chilli , remove seeds. Crush the chilli to finer pieces (no processor or blender) so its all hand work. Heat an almost one small bottle of oil (target storage). Fry the chilli on low heat.

Chop and mince up some garlic 4-5 cloves, only had  yellow onion , so 1 slice and diced it goes. In it goes.

Had some cumin leftover, in it goes. 

Add some paprika powder, add some sugar and salt.

Toss in generous amount of sesame seed. I got half a bag from prometer just not long ago =.=

Turn to high heat, fry till brown and fragnant. 

Turn low or off the heat. Add some soy sauce to the mix.

Let cool. There the chilli oil ,which turns out pretty good. Will try this out with peanut butter for the noodle flavor bomb recipe.

Homemade flat bread recipe

 Flat bread recipe is simple ; only few 3-4 ingredients.

wheat flour  - got 1 pack 1kg for less than 60 rsd. (RM2+). use 1 cup to get 4 balls.

water - add little by little to get the right consistency

salt-  just a little pinch

oil  - few drop after kneading few minutes

add some sesame oil - press it into the dough right before going into pan.

Shape into golf ball shape. don't have a rolling pin , so this becomes like a palm and press flat bread. Oil pan, heat up a bit first then sort of cook in little oil & heat it into flat bread. In the pan i drizzle some sugar well, i suppose to give it a little sugary glaze on surface. 

Looks a little pita-ish and can leave it on pan to brown abit. Probably can use as wrap, taste wise its a bit harder like wrap than the looks of roti canai.

DIY Goulash vegetarian

 Bought a goulash mix , its a powder packet. Custom adjust it since i don't cook beef, i turn it vegetarian.

Goulash Ingredients:

Yellow Onion – used both yellow and red

Green Bell Pepper – you can use other colors of peppers if desired (used frozen mixed)

Ground Beef (omitted) , i fried minced pork mixed separately to eat together.

Garlic - minced garlic

Tomato Sauce - replaced with a dash of ketchuo

Diced Tomatoes – 

Beef Broth - replaced with chicken stock

Worcestershire Sauce - dont have, changed to vegetarian stock mix

Seasoned Salt  - used normal salt

Italian Seasoning - omitted

Bay Leaves

Dry Macaroni Noodles – used chinese ramen noodle

Cheddar Cheese - omitted. ate with cheese bread stick, super nice combo with cheese.

Paprika powder-  2 tablesopon ,season with salt and sugar.

Red and yellow chilli 3/4 each.

Root vege - carrot, potatoes

Start by  browning protein (i fry it separetly) , brown the onion and bell pepper, toss in garlic until fragrant.

Pour in tomato sauce and diced tomatoes along with mix, broth and Worcestershire stock/paprika for some added depth of flavor. add some bay leaves. remove leaves after cooking

Add in the seasonings , blanch noodles separately and serve with sauce..

Yangpa Jjangajji -pickled onion and chilli

Saw on insta an easy no cook version by eboake. taste great due to soy + sugar duh. i soak 1 day and removed onion, continue use to soak as mayak egg liquid.

Chopped onion

Chopped chilli

1/2cup soy sauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup vinegar

1 cup water

Add minced garlic variation.

Hainan chicken rice chili sauce

 suddenly mau makan chicken rice chilli . go google for a simple recipe. ok straight forward, except that i got no blender. so going handmade (chop) and expect rougher textures.

INGREDIENTS:

1 red fresh chilli straight chopped  de-seeded

3-4 mala dried chili , soak , cut and remove those with mould

5-8 cloves garlic depends on size and if u like lots of them , peeled chopped minced

was going for ginger powder, but i forgot eventually. well still ok taste wise.

2 tbsp chicken stock/seasoning powder

1/8 tsp salt to taste , use feeling pinch of salt

1/2 tbsp rice vinegar   - sub with old vinegar

2 tsp sugar to taste - 1.5 pack sugar

juice from 2 limes - no need so much lemon juice. about half to 3 quarter

DIRECTIONS:

In a food processor, blend Hand chop and whack everything to a smooth paste as possible. 

Season to taste with sugar, salt or chicken seasoning powder, if needed. Serve with my roasted chicken meat. Taste ok la, acceptable in Euro land.

Keeps for about a week in the fridge.

Oven Roast chicken - easy , juicy

 Whole chicken. Remove the innards from the ribcage area. clean the rub with salt/seasoning

Marinate - with salt, yellow tumeric for few hours.

Do quick google about oven roasting 1kg take 1 hours. more or less at 200c. split 30min , then turn the chick. i changed to the steel tray since sitting on plate will soak the chicken. Plate below the tray to collect chicken sauce , add herbs + onions, potatoes and carrot. 

Glaze material . Easy to find ingredients you have in your fridge or pantry.

Garlic + Butter = Garlic Butter

A touch of lemon

A hint of dry white wine (optional, but adds so much flavour to the meat while keeping it so juicy)

Orange juice

1.5 tb of sugar

Sprinkle of salt

A bit of soy sauce

Mix herb + seasoning for meat

First time i do roast chicken in oven in my life. Juicy and nice, could get crispier skin if roast another 10min i think. Cheap and pretty easy.

Washing to be done later after roasting. Using ikea plate is possible.

This yields 2x wings, 2x drumsticks, 2x chicken breast meat and bones for broth making later.

BM tahun 4 - karangang - Suasana di Dapur

 

credit to cikgu mozello for the karangan title & photo.

Sweet and sour chicken - easy recipe

Simple and easy recipe. 2 parts recipe as below, mix chicken salt corn flour. i used 1 egg its fine as well. Cut in some potatoes to be fried in oil.

Mix sauce recipe, set aside. Saute minced garlic some sliced onions and diced tomato. Cook till mushy, add sauce mix in , cook for few minutes. Add fried chicken + potatoes in. Done and ready. 

Ingredients:

Chicken breast
Egg 2
Corn flour
Salt

Pepper, Bell pepper, Onion, Carrot, Diced tomato

Sweet and sour sauce :
Life brand tomato sauce 4tbsp
Chili sauce 4tbsp
Sugar 5 tbsp
Vinegar 2 tbsp
Soy sauce 3 tbsp
Water 30ml - replace with apple/orange juice for a sweet twist.

Apple pie filling recipe - trial and error

Looking at cheapest material where i am now. -apples 

First time in life, im gonna try my hand at making sort of jam/ spread using apple pie filling recipe.

Ingredients - 

4-5 apples i think i cored and peeled up to 6 of them  (bought cheapest Gala, smaller and fresh).

Dice them and put aside.

On medium heat pan drop in .

2 tbspoon - butter  ( i used margarine aka fatty spread here).

2 tbspoon water - substituted with apple juice since i got on hand

1 tbspoon cinnamon powder - bought 1 small pack just for this experiement.

1 tbspoon sugar - sub'd with 1 pack litttle brown sugar

Add diced apples. 

Keep cooking until they turn soft. Dont have a masher, i kind of wanted something like McD's apple pie filling. So i cut them smaller while cooking until they soften and water. 

Add cornstarch 1tbspoon  - i use feeling measurement.

Cook until apples soften to your liking.

Let cool off, then keep in jar - i suppose refrigerate. Will update back how long it lasts.

This recipe yields me like 3/4 of a big jar. Labor intense, cut and dice apples while watching swordsmitch arc kimetsu no yaiba. But taste is pretty good, like those from mart shelf, minus all the preservative im guessing it depends alot on apple sweetness level, or to compensate by adding sugar.

The skins from peeling, throw them into oven. i baked 10 min 100c 2 times, then go for 15min 125c. Abit charred, but its crispy. Maybe last round should've gone 10min 100c as well. Make use of everything, these ideas i get after looking around random insta post.

 

Raita - timun/zuchinni yogurt mix

This indian salad is pretty straight forward. Makes a great low calory snack or when you feel like need something to bite.

Core materials that makes the taste matter: 

Zuchinni  1pc

Indian onion 1pc

Red Paprika (quarter)

Apple (quarter or half if you like sweet)

Diced tomato - (quarter)

Jogurt 2.8% - pour in as needed use jour brajn

Lemon  (quarter)

Chop slice and dice zuchinni into small size. Salt and let sit 10 minutes. Continue dicing up the rest of items. Squeeze zuchinni to discard water and mix all together. 

 Add a dash of salt and sugar. 

Squeeze lemon juice. mix , mix and ready to serve.

Optional - add chilli powder (don't make much difference to me). 

Optional - add parsley flake or cumin powder or mint flake (don't have these so no idea what's the difference).

I serve with some fried onion since i like crunchiness. tomato may contribute to watery gravy ,may opt to leave it out if you like less watery yogurt sauce. 

BM tahun 4- karangan - Suasana di kantin sekolah

 

One pot vege rice + protein of choice

 another one of those prep meal stuff. again to reduce cooking to 2 times during weekdays.

i would usually like to have rice. 

rince rice, and soak for 30 minutes minimum.

chop - onions, carrots, potatoes, paprika and frozen corn.

its good to have chicken stock . if no  replace with water+butter+chicken seasoning+garlic seasoning or any of choice. 

will be good to add ginger slice, but im lazy, i go with tumeric ginger powder.

all these mix into into your rice pot, if no rice pot use a large cooking pan and cook for 25-30min .

watch the fire as the rice turn fluffy lower the heat.

usually for the protein i go with chicken + onion.

premarinade with dark soy bean, vinegar, basil leave soy sauce and garlic or any type of choice.

fry in pan till slightly char. 

optional either stir fry some simple vegetable or add water with corn starch to make gravy. 

once vege/ protein with gravy is ready, pour into your rice pot at low heat.

mix . then you get prep meal rice + protein + vege.

next will probably try those mushroom gravy style chicken.

Surivor note: DIY Quick Kimchi - derivation from kimchi pack base

So to be lazy and not cook that much that often i found the Chinese Market selling kimchi in little packs. Psst, this probably finish in 1-2 serving. Then i got an idea, why not use this as base and make my homemade kimchi batch. 

 Recipe: 

 Zuchini/Krastavac 1pc 

Cabbage (no napa cabbage here) less than half of small ones. 

Paprika/green chilli  - half pc

Yellow/Holland Onion/Luk Crni 1pc 

Garlic/Luk beli 7-9 cloves 

 Red apple/Jabuka - half sliced and diced. 

Carrot 1pc small sized 

Salt 2 tablspoon 

Sugar 3-4 spoon or to taste 

Vinegar/used old vinegar 1 spoon 

Red chilli powder since no gochugaru - 3-4 spoon to taste 

Lemon 1/4 or 1/3 , use your feeling. 

White sesame 

A drizzle of honey - optional 

1. Zuchini, slice into small bitesize piece, sprinkle salt. Set aside for water to discard. 

2. Cabbage, chopped into size u like, i like smaller fine slice. 

3. Boil water with salt. This is brine - once boiled let it rest 5 min. Dump cabbage in for 10 min. 

4. Add water to the pot, soak for 5 min . Drain and sprinkle salt over cabbage, let rest 15-30 min for salt to soak in. 

5. Rinse cabbage, drain, let it dry. 

6. Chop up the rest of veggies into smalle pieces. 

7. Mix salt sugar vinegar chilli powder to cabbage, add in the little kimchi packet for the base. 

8. Mix all together, test and add what is lacking to taste. 

9. Let it rest in room temp for one night. (up to here, will check back if this round 2 ferments great) 

10. keep in fridge for up to 2-3 weeks.

Light layout design for SS draft 1 & ramblings about choosing

Let's see if GF plaster board can proceed. Then we can use downlight designs for a brighter living room as draft below.

Keep the other rooms standard 1x cool white LED + 1x warm LED. Betting on developer's original layout should be sufficient despite what the reno contractor recommends as alternative overlapping LED placements on more points using weaker watt lights.

Below is shopping list for round 2 trip, hopefully last trip to the lighting shop.

A friend's hubby who is eletrical guy as his main job advises to go for 840 type LED, which is 4000 (K) warmth which is more gentler to our eyes. Try not to go for 830 LED , 3000 (K) as its more yellow.

830 = warm white, 840 = day light.

Quick googling for LED color temperature chart probably can help here.

LED light price scale with its Watt output. My take should be it's the intensity or how strong the light is. So if bigger space can opt for more lights or pick at least 18W to 25W LED. Those downlight type comes with it's driver part, so any damage happen to it we just replace the whole unit.

Another cheaper type is the downlight cone type. We screw normal E27 LED bulbs or incandescent bulbs if you feeling so old school to the holder. Bulb got blowed out, you buy new bulb any DIY replace yourself like a boss, easy as how kiddos replace caps of their coke bottle. The downside is it looks very old fashioned, else i would practically go for this type.

Oh right, the shopping list, below is the draft if everything goes according to plan.

6 pc from Car porch, gate lamp and staircase area.- need to snap photo for actual location of staircase again.

20 pcs from Balconies, bathrooms and bedrooms

11 pcs from kitchen area, living room, prayer table, store room and utility room.


Below are some idea for tiles grabbed from pinterest.

Balcony idea 1 - same size, different shade of colors

Kitchen /utility room idea 1 - 4 colors group into diamond shaped arrangnment. 2x white, 1x grey, 1x black.

Kitchen wall idea 2-  mosaic effect.

Kitchen idea 3- abit tricky since already have existing lower part such as above and need match. If wrongly match, the atmosphere it projects is kind of uh...toiletry? Current lower portion of tiles is a 1x1 feet light orange/beige color. So am thinking to go with subway/brick style laying for tile of similar shade color but maybe larger pieces.

Minor Reno - DIY Wall mount Fan Installation

Got a broken wall mount fan at my condo unit. Was looking around Old Klang Road and can't seem to find alot of electrical shops instead so many air cond only or car air con shop and tons of foodie shops. OKR ppl loves their air-con eh?

Anyway, I went back to Yat Sin Electrical @ Taman United which is pretty much 5 min away from the condo and they don't do installation service as what they told on my last visit there. So i came prepared with my tools and a ladder.

KDK wall mount fan

Bought the KDK wall mount which is their cheapest, and at one hardware shop brought one block of wire connectors. This type of fan has a power plug like those normal electrical devices used in kitchen, so need to DIY a little, cut off the power plug since my original wall mount is direct wired not via a plug.

Cost:
KDK wall mount fan : RM170
Wire connector block : RM1.50

Wire connector

Let's get started. Unpack, check everything is there.

The wall mount hook is not needed , just reuse existing mount already screwed to wall. Cut off the power plug.

Strip the cables of fan, make sure to switch off house power breaker.
Connect the wires together via the connector block.
Green to green, brown to brown and blue to blue. (brown/blue = neutral/live), can use the same AC power detector pen to test out whether the current supply is running before turning off the breaker.

Before visiting the fan shop, I actually tested that the cables are carrying current to ensure that my power supply lines are fine, and that the old fan unit is damaged.

From fan unit side.

From power supply outlet side.

Once connected, test out the fan unit before assembling the rest of the stuff. Back cover first, the round holder to keep it in place, then fan blades and its black holder. Finally the front cover, fit it in with a snap and secure by closing the plastic latch.

Bye bye Streamyx, Hello Webe broadband

For TLDR scroll all the way to bottom.

About 2 months back, if my memory serves me right we got mail (yes actual real mail) from TM announcing discontinuation of all Streamyx broadband service from Nov17 this year.

Meaning that our cheapo Streamyx will be out of service soon late this year and either we go for Unifi at ~RM100 + more each month or find alternative broad band solution. For only light use, Unifi is a bit overkill as we spent >12 hours at work each day.

It so happens that one heavy rain day few days back, lighting​ struck and zapped out our modem...oh dear..so a quick decision needs to be made.

1. Sign up for webe broadband 10G bonus +20Gb limit currently online at RM 59 per month. Not bad but need to buy the Wifi Modem at ~RM20x++. No bonding contract , I like it and an advance payment that will be used to offset first month payment..can't really trust next day delivery as this is not US we are talking bout. (Updated: as of 1-June the 10Gb bonus offer is no longer available).

2. Terminate Streamyx and phone number by walk in to main TMpoints. (Kelana Jaya)

Long story: Terminate TM Streamyx + phone number. This one needs to walk in to main branch of TMpoints ,give their hotline a call at 100 be very patient in waiting to verify the branch that can process this. Have your TM Streamyx account in hand, they need to verify your IC once you fill in a simple form and submit. Pretty easy if you have no outstanding to pay. TM will take 14 days to process termination, charge you service of that period (ridiculous!) And mail back a check with your balance deposit paid during package sign up registration.

PS: I called 100 asking if I can terminate my line & Streamyx and the operator dumbly took my account number, check and after some ding dongs told me, sir you can't terminate via hotline. Oh dear, why you no say so when I first asked (my very first question?!?!)

3. Contact webe via online chat. Got delivery number and keep pestering for them to deliver within their 1-3 days promised time. Next day delivery my foot ha!

The courier line clear under packet one aka webe hotline is +603 5990 5990

Long story: Now webe doesn't have a hotline. They have this online support on web. Which gives you second thoughts on their support sincerity. Hi sir, how can I help you? :)...pls don't smiley face me if you don't mean it. First operator refused to give me a number to contact the delivery team , Line Clear. Was promised they will deliver the next day but didn't happen. Gave them another call luckily they do half day delivery on Saturdays. Please have Line clear tracking number ready, it's the 6 digit number that operators say starts with Webe word. Some operator can actually check by your application IC, so I guess that depends on their Intelligent check (sorry, fallout pun here haha)

4. Upon receiving setting up is really simple. Unbox, plug in sim and battery. Install Huawei Hilink app to update password and monitor usage if need to on your smartphone. Power on and use directly. This is probably the best part here. Fuss free from received to start using. For a small saving, subscribe to auto payment using credit card and get RM2 off each month.

TLDR, Streamyx modem get zapped by lighting. Ditched the plan for a webe broadband plan. Shared how to terminate streamyx and phone number, order and follow up webe broadband delivery. Now let's see how is webe broadband performance, so far it's pretty decent..hopefully not too congested in my area.

Reno @ MDPKT20

The cost of reno. 

BR 2.8 x3 = 8.4

Kitch = 1.8 + 1.6

Own

Paint + some tools = 0.2

LED + misc = 0.1

Total damage = 12.8 + 0.3

=13.1  so expensive

Before

During

After